ArmEggeddon
by Lord O'Donnell
Summary: After the Freedom Fighters destroyed the Doomsday Project and defeated Robotnik, Snively fled Mobotropolis and the city's restoration began. The war seemed over. It wasn't.
1. Chapter 1

Everything copyrighted by SEGA and affiliates. The following is non-profit, free, and purely for fun.

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><p>The giant battle station orbited Mobius, a metal god of war floating in the icy grip of space. Star light loaned it a steely glint. Titanic and spherical, it contained power unimaginable, an evil egg whose silvered, armored shell threatened to hatch Armageddon. All it lacked was its master, to fire the massive factories and target the terrible weapons.<p>

Nearing completion at the time of the Doomsday Project, it had been the ace up the sleeve of the tyrant Robotnik. He had intended to rule the planet from that highest and mightiest throne. Going to great lengths to ensure its existence remained a secret, progress had been slow.

Those who had fought the war against him had never known how close they came to defeat. The dictator had been cast down, but the tireless automatons aboard his ultimate weapon had labored on, the last shipment of materials already in place. Finished now, the machine awaited orders that never came.

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><p>Sonic and Sally held hands, gazing out over Mobotropolis from the highest balcony of the new palace. Dusk had fallen, transforming the city into a sea of lights. Laughter and song drifted up through the air from the festive crowds in the brightly lit streets, bringing smiles to their faces.<p>

The capital of Mobius was slowly being restored to its former beauty and glory.

Sally wore white satin and a silver tiara, Sonic a jeweled coronet forged from a power ring. He had been crowned Prince of Mobotropolis by the people. The cavernous, torch-lit chamber behind the two rulers was furnished with white marble urns spilling over with ivy, plush burgundy carpets, a tapestry of Sally's father, King Acorn. Two thrones occupied the upraised dais.

A sweet, cool breeze blew over the city, the air finally purged of the dark and corrosive clouds of pollution that had once corrupted it. The tyrant's industrial complexes had been razed and his factories shut down. The smog was gone.

A city-wide celebration was about to begin. Finally freed from the oppressive rule of Robotnik, everyone was doing their best to make up for lost time. The fireworks would start soon. Fine food and strong drink would flow. They would all put the past to rest and look to a future that seemed very bright indeed.

"Still can't believe it, Sal." Sonic's voice was soft with wonder and disbelief. "He's finally gone." The wind stirred his spikes. He had never looked more like a hero.

She turned and kissed him. Her eyes sparkled with tears as she looked into his. "Believe it, Sonic. He's gone."

They sidled closer to one another as the first fireworks lit up the skies.

* * *

><p>Robotnik ran for all he was worth, breathing heavily, sweat pouring down his fat face. He tripped and hit the shining ground hard, crystal crackling and shattering under his bulk. He got up, cat quick despite his weight, sprinting again. He knew better than to look back.<p>

With every breath he cursed the hedgehog and his band. He had ruled the whole world, had been so close to total victory. His crimson eyes burned with hatred and frustration.

The bolt of power sent him tumbling head over heels in a cloud of smoking, shimmering shards. This time his robotic arm broke his fall, grinding a glimmering outcrop of crystal to dust as he righted himself. The laughter of the wizard rang in his ears.

"Faster, you traitorous worm! If your scurrying ceases to amuse me we'll play another game…" Another blue bolt flashed in the wake of the words but Robotnik was running again. It missed him by a hair.

It seemed he had fled from his old master for an eternity, but just when he thought it safe to rest the monster would reappear, his grotesque, gloved claw blazing with energy and a hideous grin on his horrible face.

Time was against him, he knew. He remembered what happened to those who spent too long in the void. Once the essence of the strange place had infused him he would be trapped forever. Escape would only mean death then, in the outside world he would crystallize. He had a desperate plan, but if he did not find a vortex soon it would pointless to even try it. _Oh how the hedgehog would love that, to find me frozen. He'd make me the centerpiece of a palace fountain, the laughingstock of Mobius. _He could see the blue beast's gloating grin in his mind.

Angered at such thoughts, he almost made a fatal mistake. The chasm loomed large before him, its bottom lost to blackness. He turned just in time, sliding precariously on the slick surface of the crystal, dislodging loose bits that tumbled over the edge. He lost his balance yet again as another bolt from the wizard lanced at him. It sailed over his head with an inch to spare.

Suddenly a thunderclap rent the air and a shockwave buffeted his back, knocking him over on his face. Shards and knives and slivers of crystal flew past him with deadly speed. The wind seized his cape and threatened to rip it from his shoulders. _The portal, it's behind me! But how far? Will I make it? _The violet light of the vortex shone in all its brilliance around him, the crystal drinking it in and reflecting it, refracting it. Beautiful to behold but horrifying all the same, for this was his last chance.

He scrambled to his feet and turned. Naugus was floating beside him, leering down. "So close yet so far, eh traitor? I opened it for you, so you would know the despair I have known all these long years. You'll never make it through to the world, only Sonic's speed could do that. You're mine…forever!"

"Curse you Naugus!" Robotnik snarled. He ran towards the vortex, and at just the moment the force of the howling wind would have brought him to a stop and shoved him back he activated the jet boosters in his shoes.

The reek of burning rocket fuel filled the air as Robotnik mentally switched the shoes to full power. He didn't dare hope it was enough, but then he was moving forward again, gaining momentum. The wind was like a concrete wall, yet somehow he was pressing through it. The swirling violet energies of the portal engulfed him_. _The last thing he heard before being knocked unconscious by the battering punishment of the wind was the outraged scream of Naugus.

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><p>Robotnik awoke to the sound of singing revelers, on the night shrouded crown of a grassy hill that overlooked Mobotropolis. Panic and a burst of adrenaline brought him surging to his feet. He had made it out of the void, but if he was found out he would be dragged back to Sonic in chains. He dove into a nearby shrub just in time.<p>

There were a dozen or so, foxes, a dog, a pig, a horse and a bear. Most held drinks, but the pig played a carved flute. The soft music mingled with the chirping of crickets in the warm summer night air. He gritted his teeth and held his breath.

When they were safely past he extricated himself from the shrub, but his cape caught on a branch and tore loudly. He froze, augmented ears straining.

They had failed to hear him.

He laughed, nervousness and triumph in the sound. Within moments he had vanished into the nearby woods, sparing only one hate laden glance at the shining lights of his former city, where his great enemy and all who dwelt there celebrated his supposed demise.


	2. Chapter 2

Snively donned his communications helmet and lowered its purple holo-visor down over his eyes. Simultaneously he hit the floor pedal that would open the cruising hover tank's hatch. Keeping the war machine sealed was safer, but the armor's electronics and his recent firings of the main gun had combined to make the interior sweltering. He turned a crank on the side of his command chair, raising himself up until he was seated comfortably halfway out of the hatch.

The cool night air washing over him was a great relief, yet that relief was tainted with his ever present fear. When he fled Robotropolis after Robotnik's defeat he had taken an armored battalion with him, intending to carve out a kingdom somewhere far, far away from Sonic. Yet those who had suffered under the regime he had helped build didn't just want him gone, they wanted revenge.

The freedom fighters had dogged his force all the way from the outskirts of the city in a running battle that had spilled into the surrounding woods and hills. He had lost several tanks and close to a hundred SWATbots, but he refused to surrender. If his army could reach the plains to the east the superior firepower of his minions would be more than adequate to win the fight and he would be safe. All that stood between him and those plains was a few more miles of forest, shrouded in darkness.

He wiped the sweat off his face with a cloth from his jacket pocket, his eyes searching for foes between the myriad trunks of the trees. The thrumming drone emanating from the war machines ahead and behind was reassuring, proof that the strong, armored fist of his battalion was in well-oiled and working order. In their wake marched the surviving SWATbots, their glowing crimson visors reminiscent of foxfire in the gloom. The bots scanned right and left constantly, ever alert. He wondered if perhaps, at last, the enemy had given up and decided to leave him alone.

As if such thoughts were a signal a flash lit up the night and a rocket flew from the shadows ahead of the column. The lead tank vanished in a bloom of orange flame with a boom and a crash, the ammunition it carried detonating a second later in an explosion twice as brilliant. A blistering wave of heat hit Snively like a slap and left him reeling.

"All units, attack, attack! Fire at will!" he screeched, his booted foot fumbling for the panic bar. He triggered it and his chair dropped back down into the tank with bone jarring force, the hatch slamming shut with a clank.

SWATbot lasers tore into the darkness, blue and deadly, flying in all directions. The forest flared scarlet as one of the tanks found targets, the mighty blast from its main gun turning the ground around the bazooka wielding guerillas to glass. Several trees in the radius of the impact ignited and suddenly burning leaves were falling and fluttering everywhere.

A hail of bullets and plasma bolts struck back at the SWATbot formation, the robotic soldiers falling like wheat before a scythe. Several exploded, showering shrapnel and taking out others near them. The rest of the bots scattered, seeking targets of their own or cover behind the adamantine bulk of the armored battalion.

Just as quickly as the engagement began it ended. The column had ground to a halt, the smoldering wreckage of the lead tank blocking the way forward. The only things that moved were the falling leaves, the flames and the heads of the SWATbots as they scanned for enemies. Snively shook with rage.

"Status report," he hissed into the helmet. He didn't want to know how many more troops he had just lost, but he _needed_ to know.

"Twenty-six SWATbot units eliminated, Sir," the robotic voice was emotionless and maddeningly calm. "One Hover Tank eliminated. Remaining force count: fifty-six SWATbot Units, nine Hover Tanks, one Command Tank."

Snively seethed. Over half the force he had commanded upon fleeing from Robotropolis had been destroyed. The freedom fighters had decimated his army, striking like vipers and vanishing like smoke. His only consolation was that it had cost them.

"Resume course," he said, fist clenched. He resisted the urge to hit something. The next war machine in line swung around its destroyed twin and struck it a glancing blow, shrugging the charred husk aside with the shrill scream of metal on metal and a burst of sparks.

Not five minutes had passed when his battered force once again shivered to a halt. He suppressed a scream of rage. "What is it now! Why have we stopped!"

"Voice Override V6RZ, Sir," responded the inflectionless robotic voice. Dread and outright horror flooded Snively. _It can't be!_

"Source!" he demanded, his voice panicky. "Show me the source!"

A nearby monitor switched from a dull readout to the camera feed of the lead tank. Standing in the glare of its headlights, like a nightmare given life, was Robotnik.


	3. Chapter 3

_You'll lose. You always do._

The wolf had one eye, the other was a blind white orb hidden by a grimy black leather patch. The words she had spoken cut him still, a razor as sharp as yesterday's regrets.

It wasn't true, he knew. He had won his share of battles, lost his share too.

His jet fighter had gone down in the ocean of grass the Mobians called the Emerald Plain, home to the ruins of a dozen cities of as many ancient races. _They_ had lost in the end, the battle to survive, the war to stand the test of time. It brought him little comfort.

Flying for Snively had been stupid, he was more sure of that than he was of most everything else. The little man had offered him a fortune to keep the new air force occupied, so that he could make good his escape. So the wolf had done it, launching his fighter unauthorized from the new airbase in Mobotropolis. Four of the eight new jets had come after his, their pilots calling him traitor, filth and worse over the radio. He had shot down three, then the fourth got a lock. _You'll lose. You always do._

He had asked her for forgiveness, once, before leaving the Wolf Pack for good. Her response had been laughter, brittle and cruel. He didn't think he hated anyone in the world as much.

He hadn't betrayed them for money. _She _was there in the city, a royal advisor now that the war was over. Sonic valued her counsel rather highly, she had helped destroy the Doomsday Device after all. She had counseled against giving him his wings, too. He supposed Sonic trusted her more than ever now. She had won, he had lost.

He scowled darkly, sadness and anger filling him up until he thought he would drown in it. The tall grass rippled in the wind, like the waves of a great green sea. No end to it was in sight.

The cut on her cheek could have been worse than a scar. She would have lost for the last time, if not for him. If he had a time machine he believed he would have travelled back, took the place of his younger self, and let her walk into the trap. The ambush had been a masterpiece. Robotnik must have been fuming, when he lost.

She had loved him, once. His days had been so bright, even in the endless night that was the war for freedom. He supposed it was just the way life was, the more you gained the more you had to…

It had been two days since he had a drink of water. He ate the grass but he wasn't meant to live on that sort of thing. He didn't think he'd make it out of here, facing a walk of a hundred miles or more. It depressed him and infuriated him in equal measure, because then he'd finally prove her right. If he never fought again he could never win.

When he saw the tanks and SWATbots he was quite surprised. They moved at walking pace, in a ragged column. He thought it was about half a battalion. Snively had taken quite a beating, despite being free of Sonic's new-fangled airpower.

The dark steel of their armor was a stark contrast to green, at this distance the small army looked like a line of ants. He wondered if the little man would offer aid or just put him out of his misery. He suspected it would be the latter. Though his mission had been a success the last thing he expected was gratitude.

He set out to meet them anyway. There would be an end to all this, either way. Thirst was a terrible way to lose.

They deployed into an attack formation when he was sighted, the tanks picking up speed and flattening the grass, which sprang up again in their wake. The SWATbots kept up as best they could, fanning out and seeking what the grass might conceal. The wolf felt very tired but he found the strength to put his hands up.

The biggest, nastiest looking tank stopped just short of plowing him under. He looked up at its black bulk but felt no fear. She had left him an empty shell, he had wondered for the longest time how he could live without a heart.

The hatch opened. Shock made him lower his hands, his eye widening.

"And what do we have here, eh? Lost your friends, you wretched freedom fighter? Don't worry. We'll take _good_ care of you." Robotnik's evil laughter boomed across the plains, grating to his ears. The SWATbots leveled their rifles, aiming for his head. The wolf felt a strange calm, surprised to realize he was smiling. _Well, knew it would happen. But maybe now that he's back he can make her suffer…_

Snively climbed out after Robotnik, looked down at the wolf. "Sir, that one's on our side! He's a renegade fighter pilot." The little man's voice raised the wolf's hackles. It had a nasally quality that had always struck him wrong. "He helped me get out of Mobotropolis before the hedgehog's jets could scramble, sir. Shot down three, I saw it on radar. He could be…useful."

The words didn't give him much hope. Robotnik hardly ever listened to his nephew.

Robotnik's robotic hand went to his double chin and his eyes narrowed, their bright crimson light boring into the wolf as they studied him. "Oh is that so? And why would you betray your friends, wolf? Are you a mercenary? A fool?"

He knew what he said next would determine his fate. He almost told the fat man something insulting. _Has she taken that much of me, that I would throw it all away? _He decided that she had, but then her words came back to haunt him yet again. "I want revenge," he said simply, "against Lupe."

Robotnik's expression changed, from one of contempt to one of thoughtfulness. For a moment he thought he could even see a speck of sympathy. _Of course. The hedgehog he hates more than anything in the universe. He lives and breathes vengeance. _He almost burst out laughing, but knew that would be the end. He would have his chance at her after all.

_I'll win. I always will. I'm coming back for you, then you'll wish I'd never saved your miserable life._


	4. Chapter 4

Tails dreamed a terrible dream.

A huge diamond glass window framed Mobius, the planet's light painting the metal chamber a ghostly blue. Robotnik was a giant twenty feet tall, holding Sonic in a grip of steel.

"Help me, Tails!" Sonic shouted, struggling vainly to free himself.

Dread filled the young fox. He tried to take to the air but he found his tails coated in mega-muck. _Noooo!_

The thunder of the giant's laughter crashed over him. Then Robotnik lifted the hedgehog to his massive mouth and swallowed him whole.

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><p>Tails awoke screaming. He sat bolt upright in his bed in the palace, eyes wide. <em>Just a dream. It was only a bad dream. <em>His breath came in quick, short pants. One shaking hand went to his forehead, the other reaching for a glass of water on the nearby nightstand.

The carved white oak door opened suddenly, a royal guard rushing in with his gun drawn.

"Are you alright, young sir?" the husky asked him, eyeing the shadows.

Tails laughed weakly. "I'm fine. It was only a nightmare…"

The husky nodded, his grey eyes sad. "A lot of us have been having them, young sir. It was a dark time we all went through. Don't you worry, it's all over now."

Tails thanked him and the guard left, closing the door softly behind him. For a long time afterwards he sat in the dark, the dream replaying itself over and over in his head.

He knew it came from his failure to be by Sonic's side, even when he flew he wasn't fast enough to keep up unless his friend slowed down. Worse still, even if he could of, the others would never have let him go on any missions. They thought he was too young, too fragile and too innocent. His lack of speed and power was the mega-muck.

Then there was the fear. Every time they had gone away he had been so afraid that they wouldn't come back. Shame and anger burned in him. He hadn't been there for them. The giant.

They had fought the final battle without him.

The fox didn't get any more sleep that evening. He slipped out his window instead, flying into the wasteland known as the Industrialized Zone.

* * *

><p>He found an intact roboticizer beneath the ruins of Robotnik's wrecked citadel, after hours of exploring dark and gloomy underground tunnels. The subterranean complex was unstable, the surface structure a pile of rubble that had been demolished by explosives. It was a miracle that the chamber in which the roboticizer was housed hadn't been buried, though its floor was littered pieces of concrete and other debris. <em>It's fate. Has to be.<em>

He worked through the rest of the night on the power systems. Back when those who fought for the freedom of his world had left Knothole, left him, the long hours and the longer waits had crept by. The kindly walrus Rotor had known his trouble and offered to teach him about machines, so that he could help in his own way. Now there was almost nothing he couldn't fix.

Rotor had called him a natural.

The roboticizer hummed to life, a shimmering column of energy crawling with blue electric bolts rising up from pad. The static it emanated made his fur stand on end. He didn't hesitate. He took his tails, his namesake, in his hand and touched their tips to the force field of the roboticizer.

The crippling pain sent him stumbling backward. The pad hissed and spat cerulean sparks, crackling.

He shook off the agony and looked over his shoulder, down at his tails. In the place of fur and flesh was cold grey steel.

_Will they work like I thought? _He twirled them experimentally. They turned smoothly and tirelessly like a turbine. He couldn't feel them, but could control them somehow.

The sapphire light of a SWATbot laser blew up the roboticizer. The blast sent him tumbling through the air like a leaf in a gale. Blue beams raked the chamber as more of the bots opened fire, melting machinery and heating the plating of the chamber's walls white hot.

He picked himself up, shocked and stunned. Then shock gave way to anger, the nightmare coming back to haunt him. _I'm not powerless, I'm not! _For the first time in his life he found his teeth bared in a snarl. The anger had turned into fury.

Instead of spinning his tails overhead as he did to fly he stood on his tip toes and spun them directly behind him like a plane's propeller, so fast that they became a blur. Then he was rocketing forward and charging straight for the SWATbot squad, his velocity approaching the speed of sound. The air in his wake became a spiraling vertical hurricane, drawing in debris.

The SWATbots fired their weapons relentlessly but he closed too quickly, one laser passing so close to his cheek that it singed his fur. Then he was racing between their ranks and the whirlwind trailing him hit them. A storm of concrete, steel and glass came with it and tore the SWATbots apart.

He was already halfway down the exit tunnel when the explosions of their destruction rocked the ruins. Already in shambles, what was left of the citadel shook and began to crumble. The corridor imploded, pipes and shattered masonry crashing down. He outdistanced it all, blasting out of the tunnel and into the morning light with the wind howling in his ears. He had never moved this fast, except when he had held Sonic's hand.

_I'll be there for you. Like you always were for me. I promise!_


	5. Chapter 5

King Acorn stared sullenly out into the glassy wastes, his blue eyes radiating despair and frustration.

_I'm so sorry, Sally. Putting my faith in him caused such pain. I can never set it right._

He shivered, though the air was not cold. Nor was it hot. The void was a horrible place, it offered only the bland constancy of crystal.

He had stopped counting the days of his imprisonment. Somewhere out there in the distance was a tall crag, shaped like a fang, where for years he had marked their passage, one after the other. Then those years had begun to bleed together, into an endless eternity. He had lost all track of time. Time had no meaning here.

_Time is a lie, _he thought angrily. _There is only now, our memories exist only to haunt us. To remind us of our mistakes, to taunt us with what has been lost, with what we would have be once more._

He drew his dagger and scratched what he had just realized into the crystal. There were a thousand such places, where his scribbling marred the landscape. He'd revisit them every now and then.

Some of the ravings he had carved in his darkest moments scared him. Those he avoided. One of the most treasured he visited every day. It read simply: "Hugged my daughter today. I won't give up."

_I had it all. I misplaced my trust. I won one war and lost another…_

He felt the tap on his shoulder and rose to his feet in a rush, spinning on his heel. Fear made him raise the dagger but an invisible force ripped it out of his grip and sent it flying into the wastes.

Naugus chuckled, the sound raspy and unsettling. The old wizard's wrinkled face was set in a grim smile and his rheumy purple eyes sparkled with amusement. "Didn't mean to startle you, your Grace. I have good news…"

Acorn scowled. He disliked Naugus, though the strange being had left him mostly alone since he had found himself imprisoned here. His instincts nevertheless whispered dire warnings whenever he was forced to abide the wizard's presence. "News, you say? In this place nothing ever changes, so how can that be?"

Naugus chuckled. "The crystal may not change, your Grace, but my arts work as well here as they did in the world. I've had a great deal of time to perfect them." He reached into his robe and pulled forth a silver amulet, forged into the shape of a skull. The skull's sockets glittered, chips of crystal set within them. "I made this for you. Believe me, if I could use it myself I would, but I've been here far longer than you. Even its enchantment can't purge the essence of this place from my flesh but…"

A lifetime of statesmanship prevented a betrayal of his feelings, yet his heart began to race. He kept his face neutral. He counted it a minor miracle that his voice did not quaver when he spoke. "Are you saying what I think you're saying, wizard? Have you finally found a way?"

The creature's smile turned into a grin. Yellowed teeth filed to points revealed themselves from behind shriveled lips. The King thought he smelled treachery on the wizard's bad breath, but of course that was impossible. It was only the knowledge that this gift would come with a curse.

_It doesn't matter. Not anymore. I'd pay almost any price to get out of here. What is his?_

Naugus took a step closer, his voice almost mocking, but it carried an undertone of lethal seriousness. "Your Grace, you must be wondering what I desire in return. As a king, you should know that every action comes with a consequence, and everything a cost."

Suddenly the amulet was engulfed in sorcerous blue light. It floated through the air and settled around Acorn's neck. He felt a strange coolness oozing from the silver links of its chain through his fur, as though it were made of ice. He resisted the urge to tear it off, something about it felt wrong. _It's evil, _a rogue thought whispered.

_I must get home! I must!_

"Say on, sorcerer. If it is something I can accomplish and this…this _thing _truly works…"

Naugus waved his hand in a gesture of irritation. "Yes, yes. It works. Of that you should have no doubt. But hear me, your Grace. Your realm is in greater danger than ever. You were too busy scratching at rocks to notice, but Robotnik was trapped here for a time, has come and gone…"

_Strange, _he thought, with unearthly calm. The wasteland had taken on a reddish tint and began to pulse. His hands were fists so tight he knew he had cut his palms.

The wizard had more to say, and only afterward did Acorn learn the price of the amulet. It was terribly high and he didn't care. _But then, he would know I couldn't refuse. Clever monster._

* * *

><p>He followed Naugus to the top of a tall, shining hill. At the crest sat a crude sleigh, carved from crystal.<p>

"Surely you jest," the King said, when he saw it.

Naugus smiled an ugly smile. "No, your Grace. In you go."

When Acorn hesitated the same invisible force that had snatched his dagger seized him bodily and he drifted through the air and into the sleigh.

Before he even realized what was happening he felt the wizard's booted foot against his back, shoving him forward. The sleigh started downhill, gaining frightening speed, its smoothed underside grinding against the ground with a high pitched hiss and kicking up a storm of dust and shards. Then a thunderclap smote the air and the vortex opened ahead, purple and spiraling and beautiful.


	6. Chapter 6

Lupe drank deep, the iciness and heat flowing through her. The casino's bar was brightly lit with neon blue, red, purple and green, turning the shelves of bottles on the wall into a sparkling rainbow. The clamor of the gambling masses that crowded around the flashing slot machines and card tables was charged with every spectrum of emotion, from joy to outrage.

She came here almost every night, finding the chaos a sort of salve for her broken heart. At least it took her mind off things, sometimes. Tonight wasn't one of those times.

_You creep,_ she thought, _first you cost me my brother, now you pull a stunt like this. I wonder if you made it out, or is that jet your grave?_

A wolf a few seats down kept looking at her, tongue lolling. She frowned at him and ordered another drink, pushing the empty glass away. For just an instant she thought her admirer was wearing an eye patch. She blinked and it was gone. He had two eyes, amber in color, not amethyst.

The portly otter tending the bar studied her closely, then nodded and set down the refill. She had been here awhile, far longer than usual.

It had been three months since Robotnik had been overthrown. She suspected that the otter had become a very good judge of when someone had sailed too far out into the proverbial sea.

The neon lines and signs around the bar began to blur. She hardly noticed. She forced herself to focus on the issues facing the city. Better to dwell on the future than the past.

Reconstruction would take years, even then Mobotropolis would never be the same. Skyscrapers and paved streets had replaced marble and cobble stones. Torches had been supplanted by an electrical grid that powered a million lights. All of it was the legacy of the city's industrialization, courtesy of the deposed dictator.

The casino itself hadn't existed before, but now it offered its vices to everyone. A hundred neighboring ones just like it comprised what had become known as the Casino Night District. _Antoine's brilliant idea. Give the people a distraction, he said. Well now they've got one._

An evening never went by around here without some sort of trouble.

The city had ballooned in size under Robotnik, as well. To get from place to place people had started using hover cars, which were being mass produced by converted factories.

The tyrant had left his mark. In contrast King Acorn had resisted the effects of modernization vigorously, though the breakthroughs in robotics and other technologies could have easily brought about the transformation that had become a reality now.

She knew there had been reasoning behind that, not just empty aesthetics. Appointed the chief of the Mobotropolis police force, she understood the consequences more than anyone. The populace had been a tight knit community before. As they grew apart, disorder grew more commonplace. The fact that most of them had spent over a decade as robot slaves to a madman made things much worse than they might have been.

"I couldn't help but notice that you were drinking alone, beautiful." The words were slurred and about as unimaginative as she would expect. She glanced over at the wolf who had been watching her. He had seated himself next to her and she hadn't even noticed.

She looked down at her glass and realized she had already finished off the refill. Somehow she didn't think the otter would be impressed or receptive if she asked for another.

"I'm done and I don't like you, so get lost." she said, her voice a steely growl. She got up and removed her grey trench coat from the chair's back, shrugging into it. He took in the scar on her cheek and the look in her eyes, left without a word. The fear she had seen on his face made her feel guilty.

_Has the war changed me that much? How did I get so angry over that? _The room revolved around her for a moment before it slowed and finally stopped. The regret over how she had treated him lingered. _He was young, he didn't deserve that._

She picked her way through the raucous crowds and headed for the exit.

* * *

><p>Two police cruisers were parked outside the casino. At first she didn't understand why they were there, then she heard the grief filled rant.<p>

"Where's my wife? _Where?_ I went to the palace and they swear…they swear everyone they could find was de-roboticized…" The cheetah trailed off and began to sob. His jacket was horribly wrinkled and it reeked of gin.

Four officers surrounded him, looking disturbed and pained. Two were bears, one a pig. Their corporal was a slim, grey fox.

The corporal put a hand on the cheetah's shoulder. "Sir, I don't know where your wife is but…" He never got a chance to finish. The disheveled citizen's face twisted into an expression Lupe had seen before. _He's snapped. _

The cheetah's hand moved so quick she didn't even see him reach into his jacket. Suddenly he was holding a glock. His fangs were bared in rage.

The corporal was faster. He grabbed for the gun and forced the cheetah's aim upward. The glock went off with a sound like thunder. A bright neon sign across the street flickered and exploded in a nova of hot sparks. Bystanders ran, some of them screaming.

The cops wrestled the weapon from him. The dull buzz of the pig's stun gun put an end to it. Suddenly the cheetah was on the ground and losing consciousness, a thin rivulet of drool glistening at the corner of his mouth. "My wife…where…"

They picked him up and put him in the cage of one of the cruisers.

_I want to go home, _she thought tiredly. _Damn Sonic and Sally both for asking me to stay in this soulless place._

She sighed heavily and stumbled over to the cops, reaching for her badge. A minute later the second cruiser was taking her to toward the palace. The sky above the plated towers reddened, dawn breaking. All she could think of was her bed. She hoped she would dream no dreams.


End file.
